To the Happily Ever After
by Cee-face
Summary: He'd resist telling her it was "based on a true story". -Souji and Nanako, fluff.-


"Big bro?"

The quiet voice turned his attention away from the late-night weather report, and Souji angled himself towards the stairwell to look at his little cousin. He had just sent her to bed; was something wrong?

"Yeah?" he queried, and Nanako fell quiet, looked almost guilty.

"…I can't sleep," she admitted. Souji glanced towards the clock. Dojima had said he'd be home late again. He returned his gaze to his cousin thoughtfully.

"I could tell you a bedtime story," the silver-haired boy eventually offered, deciding this would be a more relaxing option than a magic trick. Not that he knew any bedtime stories, but…

Nanako's big eyes lit up and she prompted, "Really?"

He gave a nod and a smile, standing up and stretching briefly before meeting her at the foot of the stairway. He looked down to her and then held out his hand to the best of his gentlemanly ability, with an amused expression that said 'ladies first'.

Nanako giggled and hurried in the direction of her room while Souji followed her at a more leisurely pace, actually trying to buy time to think of a bedtime story. Usually he was pretty good at entertaining Nanako, but he had no idea what kind of fairytale she'd like to hear - if she even wanted a fairytale.

His stalling came to a forced end when he reached Nanako's room. He'd just wing it, he guessed.

Nanako was already curled up on her futon, aiming those big brown eyes up at her elder cousin expectantly. A gentle smile was aimed in the young girl's direction as he took a seat on the floor next to the futon, though behind his calm he was wracking his brain for something that might at least bore her to sleep, if nothing else.

"Once upon a time," he started carefully, picking each of his words like the brightest of wildflowers as they came to him. "There was a princess." Princesses were always a good place to start, he figured, when it came to little girls.

…problem being, he didn't know the first thing about princesses, besides that they wore pink and lived in castles. "…there was a princess," he repeated, nervously pursing his tongue between his lips. "Who lived in a beautiful castle."

And then a thought came to him, and the words were spilling out before he realized what he was saying. "But inside the castle, it was clouded with red mist that hid monsters." Maybe the fact that Souji didn't realize sooner that he practically _lived_ in some weird fairytale was a bad sign that he was getting way too used to the strange things. "And the princess wasn't a nice princess. She was angry, and jealous."

He could see Nanako's face work itself into concern and distress for the princess as she became immersed in the story. "Why was she angry?" she asked.

Souji had to think back. "She didn't want to take the throne," he eventually decided, finding it a suitable comparison. "Her parents, the king and queen, really wanted her to. But she didn't. She just wanted to escape."

Nanako made a soft "ohh" in understanding. "Did she escape?"

The teenager smiled. "You'll see," he answered, before resuming the story. "She waited for a long time for her prince, the person that could take her away from the castle, as the anger and jealousy slowly consumed her." Well, if the Shadows weren't good for anything else, at least they made good fodder for getting his cousin to sleep. "It wasn't until one day, when…" He paused, his eyes shifting up towards the ceiling in uncertainty. "…three adventurers came to rescue her," decided Souji after a moment, his line of sight returning to include Nanako, "a…minstrel, a knight, and the prince."

Her eyes went wide. "The prince came?"

"Yeah, he-" _Sorry, Chie,_ "-did. But, even though the princess was waiting for him, she was secretly envious of him, too, for being so strong. So, when he came with the knight and the minstrel, she became upset."

The child's face turned dismayed. "But why would she be mad at the prince? She was waiting for him!"

Souji blanched. Uhh. "…because," he began. Come on come on uhhh- "the princess wasn't the real princess."

He could see the surprise in Nanako's countenance at this abrupt plot twist. "She wasn't?"

"No, she wasn't," confessed the high school student. "The imposter princess was actually a monster, like the rest of the creatures in the castle. She had the real princess hostage."

"The prince has to save her!" Nanako interjected hopefully. Souji chuckled.

"That _is _how it works, huh? Well." He stretched again, making as if to stand up. "You're probably tired, so-"

"Wait!" She huffed indignantly, puffing out her cheeks. "I'm not sleeping until you tell me the end!"

Souji looked down at her and smiled. "You promise you'll go to sleep if I tell you the end?"

Nanako nodded resolutely, so Souji fixed his sitting position and went on with the story. "Well, it turns out the monsters were made from people- the bad emotions that people feel. And the bad emotions in the real princess' heart had created the imposter princess." It was funny; humanity could wreak such horrible chaos and not be aware of it in the slightest. "But the real princess didn't think it was true. She denied it, and so the monster pretending to be her attacked the prince, the knight, and the minstrel, turning into a huge beast that no longer even looked like the princess."

His little cousin looked scared, now, but not genuinely; just empathy for the trio in the fairytale. He would feel bad if he really scared her.

"So the three had to fight the monster. They were brave adventurers, so they defeated it and were able to keep the princess safe," stated Souji, and Nanako gave a small cheer. "But," he added, "the monster didn't go away. It just turned back into its humanlike form. Only the princess could make it go away, by not rejecting the bad emotions that made it."

"Did she?" inquired the petite brunette worriedly. Souji nodded.

"She felt bad for being jealous of the prince, and realized that nothing would change by sitting around and waiting for it. So the princess accepted the monster, and it disappeared, leaving the princess with a special kind of magic that she could use to fight the other monsters like the one who had pretended to be her." He smiled. "In the end, she got to leave the castle, with the minstrel, the knight, and - of course - the prince."

He stood and Nanako peered quizzically up at him. "No 'happily ever after'?"

The teen looked down at her and after a moment of consideration, shook his head. "Not yet. The monsters aren't gone yet, so the story isn't over. But the princess' part is - and that's all for tonight." His lips pulled up into a smile. "So, it's time to sleep. I'll tell you the prince's story tomorrow."

Nanako looked a little disappointed, but eventually conceded with a soft "okay" before rolling over onto her side. Souji let his gaze linger affectionately on her for a moment at the doorway, before he turned out the lights.

He'd have to figure out the rest of the parts, now.

Hopefully there'd be a "happily ever after" to it by the time he got to Naoto's part.


End file.
